Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly
Publisher: Disney Press
Length: 320 pages
Genera: Fantasy
Subjects: Middle Grade, Mermaid, Adventure, 
How I obtained the book: Netgalley, eARC

Rating: ✭✭

The first in a series of four epic tales set in the depths of the ocean, where six mermaids seek to protect and save their hidden world.

Deep in the ocean, in a world not so different from our own, live the merpeople. Their communities are spread throughout the oceans, seas, and freshwaters all over the globe.

When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be winning the love of handsome Prince Mahdi. And yet Sera finds herself haunted by strange dreams that foretell the return of an ancient evil. Her dark premonitions are confirmed when an assassin’s arrow poisons Sera’s mother. Now, Serafina must embark on a quest to find the assassin’s master and prevent a war between the Mer nations. Led only by her shadowy dreams, Sera searches for five other mermaid heroines who are scattered across the six seas. Together, they will form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood and uncover a conspiracy that threatens their world’s very existence.

Deep Blue will probably work really well for its intended audience. It’s funny and whimsical, with a refreshing ‘girl power’ spin to it. The story is interesting and the world is obviously well built. Its intended audience is not me though, and I had a hard time enjoying the book.

I like merpeople but I have a lot of trouble reading books that are actually set under the sea. Chances are it’s going to read like The Little Mermaid instead of an original story, which is where my main problem with Deep Blue lies.

I had a very mixed experience with most of this book. On one hand, I loved the hilarious mer puns but on the same time, I had a lot of trouble taking the book and the story seriously because of it. Currensea is a great pun but I had trouble not paying attention to the puns and instead the story. They’re so glaring, at least to me, that they completely make me lose my place in the story.

I think my main problem with the novel was expecting something a tad more serious out of a silly fantasy story. It’s good for that but it’s no epic story with a complex plot.

The writing is pretty poor. Donnelly is good at puns but the rest of her writing isn’t really top notch. The info dumping in the beginning is atrocious and the character building could use a lot of work. The story is forgettable at best, and to be honest, I didn’t really care too much about anything that happened.

The characters are certainly diverse, but at times, the mermaid diversity is a bit… unbelievable. At one point there was a character with the legs and torso of a blue crab. It’s kinda inconceivable to read that there’s a character that’s literally just a crab with a human head. Or maybe my imagination is just not as good as it once was.

Overall, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Deep Blue. It’s not that it isn’t a good book but rather that I’m just not the intended audience. I’m sure people that a) come into it expecting a humorous book and b) are into this kind of mermaid book (lighthearted and fun) will enjoy it a lot.